Pre-Season 2019

The touring squad heading to the US has been announced:

Keepers: Bernd Leno, Emi Martinez, Matt Macey

Defenders: Sokratis, Shkodran Mustafi, Rob Holding, Calum Chambers, Dinos Mavropanos, Zech Medley, Hector Bellerin, Carl Jenkinson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Nacho Monreal, Sead Kolasinac, Dominic Thompson

Midfielders: Granit XHAKA, Joe Willock, Robbie Burton, James Olayinka, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Mesut Ozil, Emile Smith Rowe

Forwards: Alex Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Gabriel Martinelli, Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah, Tyreece John-Jules

Mateo Guendouzi, Lucas Torreira, Mohamed Elneny and Alex Iwobi are unavailable due to international commitments.

Laurent Koscielny is burning his bridges and sulking.

Holding and Bellerin being included is likely more for team bonding and promotional exercises than anything. It's unlikely they'll see much game time, if at all.

The squad is thin on central midfielders currently with Guendouzi, Torreira and Elneny away, hence the inclusions of Burton and Olayinka. I expect Maitland-Niles will play a lot there.

It's the first chance to watch Martinelli in action, and a big pre-season for Nelson, as a first team spot is likely up for grabs.

No Xavier Amaechi, who's looking likely to leave the club.

Anyway, the first game is against Colorado Rapids on Tuesday. Arsenal then play Bayern (18/7), Fiorentina (20/7) and Madrid (24/7) before returning home to play Lyon in the Emirates Cup on the 28th.

The team then flies to Angers for a game on the 28th, before contesting the Gamper Trophy against Barcelona on August 4. Season starts away to Newcaslte on the 11th.

All in all, it'll be one of the busiest pre-seasons I've seen in a long time.

Just realised Bielk is also not included in the squad.

Bielik is on holiday after his exploits at the U21 Euros, fwiw. Poland went deeper than England and Bielik played every game, hence he's away while Nelson has returned.

Do you believe he has a place in the squad, especially with our situation?

Also, shouldnt the club come out with a clear direction, now that they have Edu in his role?

Probably not. Reports I've seen suggest he's going to leave so he can play and that the management aren't too keen on him anyway.

There was an interview with Sanllehi and Vinai about the direction of the club not too long ago. Should be in the Lobby somewhere.

2AM( UK time) kick off tonight

Colorado Rapids-Arsenal

A young Arsenal team won 3-0. Goals from Saka, Olayinka and Martinelli.

From the clips I saw, the kids were really good, and the first teamers kinda sucked when they came on.

Worryingly, Smith Rowe didn't feature as he's still dealing with a groin problem, apparently. He's not expected to feature much at all in the States.

Just checking out the highlights. Not sure it's worth much at this stage, but they lined-up 4-4-2 in the first half:

Macey; Jenkinson, Chambers, Medley, Thompson; Martinelli, Olayinka, Burton, Saka; Nketiah, John-Jules

The shaped seemed to stay the same after Lacazette, Aubameyang and Ozil came on. Hard to tell with Ozil drifting wherever he wants, though.

I felt it was a 4-3-3. With nketiah having martenelli and saka on both sides. Olayinka amd Burton being CMs and John-jules being the free roaming AM, but I watched glimpses only so not sure about it.

Could be. John-Jules was certainly the deeper of the two forwards, though don't think he dropped into midfield much like an AM would. This is just from me skimming through highlights, though.

Video: Mesut Özil confirms he, Sead Kolasinac & Shkodran Mustafi lost a crossbar challenge bet to Alexandre Lacazette so they all have to dye their hair. [@CannonInsider] #afc pic.twitter.com/TeGxtTg1xy

— afcstuff (@afcstuff) July 17, 2019

Arsenal XI vs. Bayern Munich: Leno; Maitland-Niles, Mustafi, Sokratis, Monreal; XHAKA, Willock; Mkhitaryan, Özil, Aubameyang; Lacazette

Caught the highlights. It looked a very open game with both teams having plenty of chances.

Auba looked very good on the right flank when running with the ball, Coman gave AMN a horrible time of it in the second half, and the kids did okay again, albeit at the end of the game.

Who is this Burton kid? never heard of him.

Neither had Emery, apparently, until Ljungberg told him. I suppose that justifies Ljungberg's promotion.

He's looked okay in these games, but he's only there because Guendouzi, Torreira and Elneny are away currently. Don't think he's like Willock, Nelson, Saka or Nketiah, who would have been on the plane no matter what.

He looked tidy and made himself available to receive passes and take responsibility(mostly in Colorado game)
nothing special
Nketiah is best of the bunch,but we already knew
interesting how Auba played on the right all game and didnt swap sides with Mkhi

Sigh. Back to Arsenal.

Mustafi is shocking

Nketiah!!

RealGunner wrote:Sigh. Back to Arsenal.

You don't have to mate, :heartbreak emoji: save yourself.

Good guy Laca setting up Nketiah and Willock with selfless passes.

Martinelli looked like prime Henry for a moment there, until his touch got away from home at the last moment and made the shot more difficult than it needed to be. The kid's got pace, that's for sure.

Jay29 wrote:Good guy Laca setting up Nketiah and Willock with selfless passes.

Martinelli looked like prime Henry for a moment there, until his touch got away from home at the last moment and made the shot more difficult than it needed to be. The kid's got pace, that's for sure.

Hope he turns out great, so that we don't have to worry about the striking department for a while. He can take over from Laca and Auba then just when they fade out.

Then we just drastically need to rebuild our defense ASAP, and find a good partner for Torreira somewhere in the next few seasons.

Between Martinelli, Nketiah and John-Jules, hopefully they won't have to be spending huge amount on strikers for a few years.

That defence truly was awful last night, though. I mean, I don't expect anything else from Mustafi and Kolasinac but there's something about how they can't defend anything behind them that makes you despair. Plus Monreal is showing his age. Holding and Sokratis are going to have to play blinders this season.

Also, I hope three at the back doesn't come back. The extra defender isn't helping the defence at all, and the ball progression from the back seems to get worse, too. The quality might not be there for a back four, but at this point it seems more beneficial to have the extra midfielder or forward.

El Gunner wrote:

RealGunner wrote:Sigh. Back to Arsenal.

You don't have to mate, :heartbreak emoji: save yourself.

Impossible.

Feels like Nketiah has progressed into a whole new level this pre-season. Looks stronger, faster, more composed. It's really good to see.

We also really need 3-4 new defenders if we are being honest.